I was watching the Office last night, and some ad from Exxon/Mobil comes on in which a “scientist” says something about how natural gas is a very clean fuel, but “has impurities in it like CO2.” I nearly fell out of my chair. Carbon dioxide is an inevitable product of combustion, not an “impurity,” idiot.
Say what you just said into a camera, and put it onto the TV, and then you would be correct.
Technically, he’s correct, natural gas extracted from the ground has a lot of impurities in it that have to be filtered out, and that includes other gases like carbon dioxide. It’s considered an impurity since its presence reduces the overall energy density of the natural gas.
That said, I’d wager that most of it does get filtered out and it’s not really that big a deal, especially not to the point of presenting it as some kind of bogeyman in a TV ad.
Yeah, the Co2 problem with burning fossil fuels is that it’s releasing carbon that’s been in the ground for millions of years, and I would wager that the majority of the CO2 released is from the combustion, not from whatever CO2 is comingled in the gas as it comes out of the ground.
The dumbest line I have ever seen in a commercial was a commercial for now windows for your home. The line was:
“If your walls could talk, what would they say about your windows?”
Im still perplexed by the two layers of imagination that the question requires. As far as I can tell the answer is “AAHHH!!! Why are there huge gaping holes in me!!! AHHHH!!!”
The dumbest line I’ve ever heard would be from the Harrah’s Casino ads that ran in Kansas City during the late 90s. They’d have testimonials from people expressing why they feel Harrah’s was the best casino and one was a little old lady who gushed, “Harrah’s people are my friends!”
Lady, trust me, they aren’t.
True… but he is talking about the CO2 in the gas… making it impure. Not the CO2 released from combustion.
Joe’s Crab Shack–
“Take your top off!”
Some favs that come to mind are inappropriate uses of music and poetry. Carnival Cruise lines using Lust for Life and leaving out the bit about “beat my brain with liquor and drugs”.
I recall another commercial (maybe a car ad) that used The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock – quoting “Do I dare disturb the universe?” but somehow leaving out the part about “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons”. Which of course is really the point of the poem, that you aren’t going to be disturbing anything, even with your BMW.
I keep watching that, hoping that one time she will…
“Scientifically proven to make that certain part of the male anatomy larger.”
For the Wunder Boner (It Bones Fish!):
“My wife would like that!”
There’s an ad for a factory-direct home furnishings that runs here that says it’s perfect “If you’re remodeling your house, or if you’re just tired of paying retail.”
Wow! I am tired of paying retail prices! I don’t have any need whatsoever for a set of kitchen cabinets, but goddamit, I’m going to but them because I am just so sick of paying retail prices. That’ll show them.
I’d hit it.
The worst part about that commercial is that it’s almost double the volume of every other commercial. It comes on and I have to mute it.
OK, I stand corrected. Technically the scientist is right (I’m taking your word and other posters’ word for it, because I know essentially nothing special about natural gas extraction). But that means that the commercial is doing a very slimy thing because it goes on to claim (factually, I gather) that the “impurity CO2” can be substantially contained, thus misleading the ignorant out there into thinking “Oh good, we can burn all the natural gas we want and there won’t be any climate-changing CO2 released! Yay, the oil companies are so earth-friendly…” warm glow. That sucks.
My fav is the old windows 95 commercial but not for what they are saying, but for what they cut out of the song.
Windows 95: It really made a grown man cry.
In a similar vein to the OP, those new IBM commercials really piss me off. The ones where their “employees” talk about making the world a better place. The part about gridlock in Stockholm going down 32% or whatever. Just that simple, thanks IBM! Or the guy that says math can “better predict financial markets”. All the finance companies have been doing the past 15 years are hiring math nerds to try to predict the future. How did it work out for us?
I remember some hotel or motel chain using “With a little help from my friends” a couple years back (well, a really bad cover of it) but conveniently leaving out the line about getting high.
I just don’t see the point. EVERYONE knows that song and everyone knows that line. Maybe thats part of the campaign, our hotel room and some hookers and coke.
But did it make a dead man come?
Maybe if that dead man was the Marquis de Sade…